BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE young, the not so old, newcomers and veterans all laid it out onstage last evening (Nov. 30) at Carnival Village to impress the judges during the first night of eliminations in the Soca Monarch Competition.
Several seasoned campaigners showed their maturity and firepower to become early favourites to dethrone the reigning kings.
Some, however, lost the plot all together, while others showed improvements over their performances last year.
Topping the improvement list was Jesse Astaphan, who sang under the stage name J Money.
He belted out ‘Carnival Love’, which has catchy lyrics, and grabbed the attention of the crowd.
Lil Miss and her ‘Indicator’ lyrics brought the crowd alive with her sensual dance moves, directing the traffic in the process.
But the evening belonged to Bary C, who performed ‘Bring You Bumper’, a smooth groovy entry.
His piece brought out the fire in the crowd, as they grooved to the lyrics.
Many in the crowd believe that his song would be enough to not only make the semi-finals but also the finals.
He told SKNVibes Entertainment that he was happy with his performance.
“My performance was good, I have no excuse. I must say that I think I gave a good performance. It was elimination, so we didn’t want to put out too much. So we just did enough to let the band and the music speak for itself...the judges now have to do what they have to do.”
Barry commended all the performers for their outstanding performances, pointing out that “as far as I am concerned, the performances were good ones”.
Eliminations continue this evening with a further 14 performers. However, a statement obtained by this media house indicates that one of the artistes has opted out of the competition.
“Fantastic Tunda will not compete in this year’s Soca and Calypso Competitions. The decision to withdraw from the Soca Competition was based on two factors. He was informed that the Carnival designated band, backup singers, would not be singing the background vocals.
“The background vocals are instrumental to the up-tempo beat of his song ‘Hot Sugarcake’. Fantastic Tunda was scheduled to perform in the Soca eliminations on Friday 1st December, 2017,” the statement read.
SKNVibes Entertainment confirmed the withdrawal with his manager, Mosi Mandisa, who informed that he is also withdrawing from the Calypso Competition.
The artistes who will be competing tonight are:
• C-Mac – ‘Carnival is We’;
• Jazzbo ft Tobap – ‘Whine On Me’;
• Dagah – ‘Can't Miss J’Ouvert’;
• Adowah – ‘Charge Up’;
• Steel – ‘Wukup Without A Cause’;
• Fantastic Thunder – ‘Best Thing About Tonight’;
• X-Man – ‘Pop & Flick’;
• Gharlic – ‘Ghost Inside A De Jam’;
• Bad Man Polo – ‘Do Dem’;
• Daddy 2 Sec – ‘Bite Dem Up’;
• Jeezy Sparta – ‘Sparta Mas’;
• K-Warner – ‘Waving Party’;
• Mr. Hype – ‘Crazy People’; and
• Nicha B – ‘Bam Bam’.
